THE NAKED APE GETS DRESSED. For those who strive for better things and who understand, as did Ben Jonson, that: "the pipe marks the point at which the orang-utan ends and man begins".
- And those who understand S T Coleridge's: "While Fate tramples on things of beauty, the indignant human heart shall utter them."

Friday, 14 October 2011

The playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan and the poet Lord Byron were adept at 'keeping house' from their creditors and their bailiffs. This meant staying indoors and out of the way. Beau Brummell and Scrope Davies took the alternative route of escape and became 'Gentlemen Gone To The Continent'. Of course, Byron also fled debt and scandal several times.

Inside the house at 14 Savile Row (illustrated), which Hardy Amies renovated after WWII to accommodate his business, there is a casement from which it is said that Sheridan used to peep out at the importunate band of his creditors and their henchmen, thronging below. The house bears a plaque to his memory.

About Me

Nicholas Storey is a Cornishman and a law graduate of University College London. He had a career in the law in London; both in the Government Legal Service and in private practice before he moved to Brazil in 2006. Besides technical works, he is the author of the well-received 'History of Men's Fashion - What the Well Dressed Man is Wearing' (Pen & Sword Books Ltd, available through all the usual UK outlets, including: amazon.co.uk; Waterstones; W H Smiths; Tesco; play.com; Zawi and, for sales overseas, it is available on all the amazon sites, listed at the end of www.amazon.com). For the publisher's site - see "Links to my books" above. The best current deal, with worldwide free shipping, appears to be at www.bookdepository.com. Nicholas Storey is also currently publishing (again through Pen & Sword Books) a complementary miscellany on men's grooming, accessories and pleasures ('History of Men's Accessories - A Short Guide For Men About Town'), to be followed by a third book in the series, this time on the sporting life. After that, there is to be a book on a selection of Great British Adventurers.